Ideal schmideal

From my experience dealing with avatars or profile pictures, I have learnt to always take them with a grain of salt (or a bucket in some cases). No one is ever going to be able to show you a complete rundown of themselves in the space of a Facebook ‘about me’, and so as E.T. Higgins, author of Self-Discrepancy: A theory relating self and affect, says; people ‘mediate their image, strengthen their virtues’. In doing so, people often present an image of their ideal self rather than their actual self. The following image from theincredible-s’s Tumblr page (2014) shows a humorous representation of Stage 1 of Baudrillard’s Hierarchy of Simulation (1994).

By creating this notion of an ‘ideal self’ it becomes apparent what societal ideals are nowadays. Just by playing Second Life or any other game requiring a custom avatar, you can see how people want to look, and how other people react to them. For example, if I were to create an avatar for an online game (lets just use Second Life as an example), and my avatar had bright green hair and wore a clown costume with fairy wings, no one would believe that was an accurate representation of what I actually look like, so why are we all so caught up on creating a ‘perfect’ looking avatar?

This need to be ‘perfect’, in my opinion, stems from a vast array of influences. One of the main influences on people these days is mainstream media. As seen in the image above (Refinery 29 2013), photos of otherwise beautiful people are ‘photoshopped’ to fit societal ideals. This falls into the second stage of Baudrillard’s Hierarchy of Simulation (1994), which is a misrepresentation of an original, created purely to fuel the need for an ideal world.

In my opinion, when I upload a photo of myself to Facebook or Instagram, I am the only one who actually cares about it. Sure, people may ‘like’ it or comment on it, but no one is sitting there thinking, “I wonder when Mollie is going to upload another photo of herself”. So why are we all trying to please people who really couldn’t care less?

References

Baudrillard, J 1994, Simulacra and Simulation, 2^nd ed. University of Michigan Press, USA.

Higgins, E. T. 1987, ‘Self Discrepancy: A Theory Relating Self and Affect’ Vol 94, Psychological Review, The American Psychological Association Inc. New York.

Theincredible-s, FB Profile Picture, photo tagged by friends, viewed 27 January 2014, <http://theincredible-s.tumblr.com/tagged/facebook>

‘Jennifer Lawrence Photoshop Fail’, Refinery 29, viewed 27 January 2014, <http://www.refinery29.com/2013/12/59162/jennifer-lawrence-flare-photoshop-fail> 

Courageous or Coward?

In Julian Assange’s interview with 60 Minutes (2013), he is referred to as an activist. Activism is defined as “the doctrine or practice of rigorous action or involvements as a means of achieving political or other goal, sometimes by demonstrations, protests, etc.” (Dictionary.com 2014) Referring to Assange as an activist may be the most accurate description of him, as the goal of Wikileaks was to inform citizens of government corruption.

Codeinet 2013

Bertot, Jaeger & Grimes (2010) present the idea that social media is a strong tool when it comes to fighting government corruption, by way of four major strengths: collaboration, participation, empowerment and time. Because of the widespread accessibility of social media, it provides users a venue to collaborate with other users from across the world. This collaboration & participation of users leads to empowerment, by allowing them to voice opinions where they will actually be heard. This can be done almost instantly, creating the perfect tool to overcome government corruption. Wikileaks is an example of a collaborative social media tool used to fight government corruption. Users are promised a degree of anonymity as they share their information.

This anonymity did not cover Bradley Manning, however. Manning was convicted of espionage following his leak of government secrets to Wikileaks (ABC News 2013). This conviction has sparked fear in Julian Assange, as he states in his interview with 60 Minutes (2013), as he fears the same fate will come to him.

We have the tools to create government transparency, but will anyone be willing to stand up and fight now?

References

Bertot, J, Jaeger, P & Grimes, J 2010, ‘Using ICTs to create a culture of transparency: E-government and social media as openness and anti-corruption tools for societies’, Government Information Quarterly, vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 264-271.

Codeinet 2013, Julian Assange Asylum Seeker – 60 Minutes Australia, 4 August 2013, viewed 16 January 2014, <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ES5Qs5ebgb4>.

Dictionary.com, viewed 6th January 2014, <http://dictionary.com>

‘Bradley Manning sentenced to 35 years’ jail for Wikileaks data breach’, ABC News Australia, viewed 14 January 2014, <http://abc.net.au/news/2013-08-21/soldier-bradley-manning-sentenced-to-35-years-jail/4903854>.

Wreck-It Rudd

During the 2013 election, whenever I logged on to Facebook or Instagram, I was bombarded with statuses, photos and memes of everyone’s political opinions. People were absently mindedly contributing to the election campaigns by either agreeing or disagreeing (generally the latter) with the candidates.

Entertainment was a major part of Kevin Rudd’s 2013 election campaign. By adopting words such as ‘selfie’ (self-photo) and ‘quiche’ (from Chris Lilley’s J’Amie Private School Girl), Kevin Rudd’s popularity with young people skyrocketed because he was so entertaining. However, during his election campaign Kevin Rudd posted a new photo on instagram every day, if not twice a day, however since the election, 22 weeks ago, he has only posted twice. He has since closed his twitter account (News.com.au 2013), creating more reason to think his use of social media was not a genuine attempt to connect with a younger audience, but simply a stunt for his election campaigns.

The use of social media in political campaigning fits in with Jenkins’ views of participatory culture as candidates are moving their campaigns to an environment that allows people to participate in them by voicing their opinions. Jessica Stanley, a consultant to Labor’s 2007 campaign, stated: “Social proof is very important. If your friends are seen to like Rudd, it makes it easier for you to like him.” (Swan, J & Visentin, L 2013) This idea of ‘being cool’ for liking a candidate is, in my opinion, exactly what all politicians are aiming for. If a politician can make young people think that voting for them is the ‘cool’ thing to do, then they have won the social media war.

References

Steph Rogers 2013, ‘Tony Abbott NBN Meme’, Our New PM, At Least He Makes Good Memespiration, viewed 12 January 2014, <http://stephrogers.com/2013/09/13/our-new-pm-at-least-he-makes-good-meme-spiration/>

TNT Magazine 2013, ‘Wreck it Rudd’, Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard Memes Sweep the Web After Day of Upheaval in Aussie Politics, viewed 11 January 2014, <http://www.tntmagazine.com/news/australia-news/kevin-rudd-and-julia-gillard-memes-sweep-the-web-after-day-of-upheaval-in-aussie-politics>

“Kevin Rudd bids farewell to twitter followers after announcing resignation from parliament”, News.com.au, 14 November 2013, viewed 11 January 2014, <http://www.news.com.au/national/kevin-rudd-bids-farewell-to-twitter-followers-after-announcing-resignation-from-parliament/story-fncynjr2-1226759365975>

Swan, J & Visentin L 2013, "Political heavyweights are online, upfront and in your face", Sydney Morning Herald, 8 August 2013, viewed 13 January 2014, <www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2013/political-heavyweights-are-online-upfront-and-in-your-face-20130807-2rgpc.html>

Tweeter or time-waster?

When Twitter first burst onto the Social Media scene, it was a concept completely unheard of. 140 character posts and people 'follow' me?! It honestly seemed ridiculous to me. But Twitter then began to spread rapidly, with everyone I knew able to be contacted at the touch of the @ key. Since joining Twitter, I have made 56,050 tweets. A bit excessive but I guarantee most of those tweets were either my horoscope being automatically tweeted or about how I was "so bored of this train." 

I couldn't resist this Game of Thrones/Twitter crossover.

(Quick Meme, 2013)

Although my tweets about being bored were very captivating, Twitter has been used by businesses to increase awareness and to promote their goods & services. As Patrick Stafford (2010) expressed in his article, Twitter can be highly useful in promoting a business. I have seen many businesses create interest in their products or services by holding 'giveaways' or offering incentives to those who 'retweet' their tweets. By doing this, the business increases its reach to consumers and may gain more followers who will then buy what they're offering. 

Twitter is also used by governments and organisations to provide information on important events. As an avid train-catcher, I follow the Sydney Trains twitter, who post about possible delays or trackwork, so as I'm scrolling through my feed and see a tweet about a delay on my line, I can then proceed to tweet about my annoyance that I have to wait 35 minutes due to urgent signal repairs. Twitter is also used to broadcast information about natural disasters, warnings, and other urgent information. 

The future of twitter seems unclear, as many people I know have stopped using it due to so many other social networking sites becoming available every day. In my opinion, Twitter is a highly useful tool in communication important information to a large number of people, but the expanding roles of Facebook and Instagram are tending to draw people away from the 140-character delight that is Twitter.

References

Quick Meme 2013, 'Why Doesn't George R.R. Martin Use Twitter?', Quick Meme, viewed 8 December 2013, <http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3upw3b>

Stafford, P 2010, 'How Twitter will change your business', Smart Company, 30 November, viewed 8 December 2013, <http://www.smartcompany.com.au/growth/economy/6751-how-twitter-will-change-your-business.html>

Mobile bricks

My partner and I live in a small mining town in NSW. A few months ago, we moved to a property about 10 minutes out of town. This meant we had no mobile phone coverage. -GASP!- I, personally, take my phone everywhere with me and having no mobile phone coverage at my own home was a huge shock to the system. I was sitting on the lounge watching F.R.I.E.N.D.S and felt like I’d been taken back to the 90s when you actually had to talk to people (I know, the thought of talking, ugh), though my TV is slightly better than those from the 90s.

I had another shock last week when I tried to activate my new phone, but instead, my old phone stopped working too, and I essentially had two very expensive bricks in my hands. As Ingrid Richardson (2007) stated; “(the) mobile phone is customarily accepted almost as a body part or appendage.” People have grown so used to seeing people glued to their phones that no one questions it anymore. But we have to think about what this is doing to our social lives. Sure, you can call up a friend to hang out, but you can just as easily say everything you want to say over a text message. Boom, no human contact needed.

It’s a very sad, but true fact that I, along with many other people, could not live without my phone for a week. I noticed a while ago that unless someone’s phone is out of battery, out of service, or just not with them, they will be much less inclined to talk face to face. And when their phone is out of battery/service/not with them, the conversation is generally just complaining about how they miss their phone.

My opinions are coming from a 20-year-old’s perspective, which means I’m surrounded by other 20-year-olds who have grown up with this technology. Who knows, it may be complete different for a 30, 40, 50 year old who rarely uses their phone. From what I can see, mobile devices with keep evolving over the coming years and will eventually (if they haven’t already) take over our lives.

(The Meta Picture, 2012)

References

Richardson, I, 2007 'Pocket Technospaces: the Bodily Incorporation of Mobile Media', Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, vol. 21, no. 2

The Meta Picture, 2007, 'Respect the Elderly', The Meta Picture, viewed 2 December 2013, <http://themetapicture.com/respect-the-elderly/>

Blogs & Blogs & Blogs

This teaching period, I chose to study Social Media as an elective for my degree. Let's just get one thing straight; I hate writing. So why did I chose a unit with so much writing? I'm not quite sure actually, but let's see how we go. This may well turn into a farce where everyone comes to find humour in my lack of writing skills. 

Blogging. How could someone's usually meaningless ramblings be of any interest to a bunch of complete strangers? Blogs are basically just a public diary, where users can post their innermost thoughts and feelings to the world, maybe behind an alias so that they have the freedom to post anything they want without the constant worry of "will this offend/be inappropriate to my boss/family/friends?"Not to worry, they'll never know it's you posting. 

Blogging opens up a whole jar of opinionated people who would otherwise just annoy their friends with their constant rambling. This blogging platform allows these 'ramblers' to post their opinions, start discussions (or arguments) with people beyond their friendship circle that might actually care about what they're saying. 

All criticisms aside, blogging has evolved the social media world, with users from all across the world able to voice their perspectives and connect with like minded (or completely opposite) people. Rheingold (TED Talks 2008) presented the theory of 'virtual communities', which very accurately defines blogging. Many users from all over the world combine ideas to create posts and provide insight into other peoples' blogs. 

Just imagine if blogging was a non-virtual tool. Streets would be lined with people on soapboxes, all trying to be heard over the person next to them, most of which we wouldn't want to listen to anyway. All we could do is try to be heard over all of them and provide our opinions on their opinions. The virtual world makes this much easier, by leaving comments instead of yelling at a person to try and be heard. Blogging online allows you to switch on and off to people and blogs you are interested in, while filtering out the ones you don't want. 

To briefly sum up:

(Ludumdare, 2013)

References:

'I have no idea what I'm doing dog' [image], Ludumdare 2013, viewed 21 November 2013, <http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/tag/change-of-plans/>.

TED Talks 2008, The new power of collaboration, viewed 21 November 2013, <http://bit.ly/xXl6y4>